19 June 2001
The South African Communist Party (SACP) believes that the failure of Gateway Homeloans, a home finance scheme set by the parastatal National Housing Finance Corporation, and continued evictions of residents defaulting from home-loan repayments by banks point to the need to intensify the Campaign to Make Banks Serve the People. South African banks are basically withdrawing from reconstruction and development which is in our country's overall interest.
The Campaign to Make Banks Serve the People must be intensified in order that the more than R600 billion hoarded by South African banks is controlled by its owners and actually invested back in our communities.
In addition to transforming South African banks, the SACP is strongly of the view that we must move speedily towards co-operative banks and public sector banks which will be sufficiently protected and be effective competitors against private commercial banks in our country. In this way we will begin to challenge and defeat the arrogant power of South African banks.
This arrogance of South African banks not only protects narrow profit interests but it also borders on inhumanity and disdain for human dignity. For example, despite protests and attempts to negotiate by residents of Thokoza, yesterday the sheriff of the court removed belongings of four families who are in arrears with home loan repayments. Some of these families are not able to repay because of job losses. Given the levels of continuing retrenchments, there must be many other families in townships, which are being, evicted daily by the banks despite genuine appeals to be heard and to negotiate alternative arrangements.
The SACP condemns this unilateral and inhumane action by banks. The SACP calls for consultation and discussions between banks, communities and government on housing finance including current arrears owed by residents. The SACP calls for a moratorium on evictions pending this consultation and discussion.
The Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele has correctly laid the blame of Gateway's failure on South African banks hesitancy to finance housing for poor people. The banks make a rather shoddy claim that Gateway did not sit down with the banks and that Gateway should have serviced those with a monthly income above R3500 a suggestion designed merely to meet the profit motive of private banks and which would have moved Gateway's focus away from the most needy. Through Gateway, government went a long way to meet the banks demands for the security of their loans. Therefore, South African banks can no longer claim that lending to poor communities is risky.
South African banks must begin to look at poor communities from a broader perspective beyond creditworthiness informed by narrow private profit interests. Poor communities are creditworthy if approached collectively and creatively by financial institutions which make their super-profits from monies deposited by workers, communities, government, trade unions, churches, stokvels, Provident Funds and so on.
Today, as the Minister of Housing will present her budget to Parliament, the SACP reiterates its call for community re-investment legislation which must compel banks to invest in our townships and rural areas. Further, the SACP also calls for a review of state housing policy which is currently hampered by insufficient budgetary allocations and the dominance of the private sector.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information and Publicity South African Communist Party
Tel: 011 339 3621
Fax: 011 339 4244
Email: sacp1@wn.apc.org